Howard said
> If you have a good singer who has put in the work to learn and understand the song, it won't matter if they need to refer to a crib sheet because that won't interfere with their performance and delivery. The reality is that the majority of those who rely on having the words in front of them have not put in that work, and can't deliver the song properly. Learning a song from memory requires you to study it and think about it in a way that simply reading from a book does not.

I don't know whether the majority of those who have the words in front of them can't deliver the song properly, but it certainly applies to some of them.

Despite the range of opinion here, I think most of us can accept crib sheets as a legitimate help for singers who (for whatever reason) are likely to forget their words or are just afraid of forgetting, but to draw the line at singers relying totally on reading the words of songs that they don't actually know at all.

Another thread has popped up referring to software that I had never heard of but which I presume has the sole purpose of allowing you to perform a song that you don't know. Am I being too harsh there or merely misunderstanding?